Time To Decompress

I'm finally done. Over $1.5 million project to support a multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional task force for the collection, analysis and disssemination of criminal intelligence.

As an anniversary present, our girls got us a week end at a resort on the west shore of Lake George. We start tomorrow and it's just in time. I am beat up, stressed out and ready for a break.

We'll pack tonight, meander down to IHOP tomorrow morning for breakfast and take the three hour trip at our leisure.

We'll be home Sunday and then I'll have a nervous breakdown because Monday it starts all over again.

Matt. 6:34 - "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."

I gotta keep that in mind.

Home Depot Redux

Just when ya think ya got someone or a business pegged:

Every Memorial Day I put up a new flag in front of our house. It is a 3' X 5' flag and it gets pretty ratty by the end of the year. There are about a half dozen houses on my block that do this and I always like the way the neighborhood looks when all the flags are out.

Friday I drove down to Home Depot to get a replacement flag and was very disappointed that the store was just about sold out. The flags that I use were completely gone and the only ones left were little ones on sticks or much larger ones on a 20' pole.

As I was leaving the store I saw a flag that was exactly what I needed. It was sticking out of a barrel next to a table where you could sign up for a Home Depot credit card. I asked the clerk at the service desk if it was for sale. He came around the counter section and walked to the barrel with me. He explained that the flag was a return and that they were giviing it away to anyone who would open up a new account.

I explained that I already had an account, thanked him for the information and started to walk away. He stopped me and thanked me for opening an account a few years ago. He then asked me if I had gotten my free flag when I opened an account. Heh.

I walked out of that Home Depot with a brand new flag.

Memorial Day - Doug Patton

A Memorial Day to Remember 2008
By Doug Patton
May 26, 2008

This Memorial Day, I will remember the 4,435 Americans who died revolting against the tyranny of King George in the American Revolution.

I will remember the 2,260 Americans who died fighting the British again in the War of 1812.

I will remember the 13,283 Americans who died in the Mexican War.

I will remember the 558,052 Americans, on both sides, who died in our bloodiest war, the war between the Union and the Confederacy.

I will remember the 2,246 Americans who died in the Spanish-American War.

I will remember the 116,708 Americans who died fighting German aggression in World War I.

I will remember the 407,316 Americans who died defeating fascism in Europe and imperialism in the Pacific during World War II.

I will remember the 33,651 Americans who died battling North Korea.

I will remember the 58,168 Americans who died in Vietnam, including my best friend from high school, killed by a sniper in June of 1968, at the tender age of 20.

I will remember the 293 Americans who died driving Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait during the Gulf War.

I will remember the 2,464 Americans who were murdered by our Islamist enemies at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in a field in Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001.

I will remember the 506 Americans who have died so far liberating and securing Afghanistan.

I will remember the 4,081 Americans who have died liberating and securing Iraq.

I will remember the simple words carved in stone at the Korean War Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, DC: “Freedom isn’t free.”

I will remember those who have paid the price for that freedom, which I so often take for granted.

I will remember that courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the willingness to act decisively in spite of fear.

I will remember that there have always been far more tyrants than freely elected statesmen, and that brave Americans have had to pay the ultimate price to preserve liberty throughout our nation’s history.

I will remember that the United States of America has always been a fragile experiment defended by ordinary men called upon to do extraordinary things in times of great peril.

This Memorial Day weekend, many Americans will visit the World War II Memorial in Washington, DC. It took our nation far too long to erect and dedicate it, and many who served in that epic struggle are no longer here to see it. In fact, we are now losing the members of that generation, most of whom are now in their eighties, at a rate of more than 1,000 per day.

There was never any adequate way for us to thank them for what they did. They never expected that we should. Like all those who have laid down their lives for freedom in all of America’s wars, they simply did what destiny called them to do. When their war was finished, those who survived returned home to resume their lives and stoically cope with the horrors they had seen.

This Memorial Day, I will remember that even as the free nations of the world could have lost World War II, without the will to be victorious America could still lose the worldwide war on terror.

As always, this year I will commemorate the sacrifice of my grandfather and my father, who served in World Wars I and II, respectively. They are now buried next to their beloved wives in a small cemetery on a hilltop surrounded by rolling farmland in Montgomery County in Southwest Iowa.

I will remember their service, and the noble lives they led after returning home. I will remember that they helped to preserve a legacy of freedom and opportunity for those of us who came after them.

This Memorial Day, I will remember those who sacrificed to protect my God-given rights.
____________________________________________________________________________

© Copyright 2008 by Doug Patton
____________________________________________________________________________

Doug Patton is a freelance columnist who has served as a political speechwriter and public policy advisor. His weekly columns are published in newspapers across the country and on selected Internet web sites, including Human Events Online, TheConservativeVoice.com and GOPUSA.com, where he is a senior writer and state editor. Readers may e-mail him at mhtml:%7BB5A5E0E5-09A7-4E7E-ABCC-097CA314DBE1%7Dmid://00000015/!x-usc:mailto:dougpatton@cox.net.

Trophy Dioramas

Things to do with old GI Joe toys.





H/T to Keith Sparzak

Thus We Honor Our Heroes

In 1971-72 I attended the Graduate School of Public Affairs in Albany, NY. There I met Lt. Col. Sandro Barone (USAF ret.) who was the assistant dean for the school. He was a great guy. I have never forgot what he told me.

When America stops being good, America stops being strong.

This weekend, let us praise the GOD of Glory, the LORD of Battle, Our Rock and Our Salvation, for the millions of good men and women who have so faithfully served our Country, even unto death.

Lay Me Doone (Sgt. MacKenzie)

We Were Soldiers Once, And Young

Soldier Music

US Air Force Tribute

Marine Tribute



Soldier Tribute

US Navy Tribute

The Women Behind The Heroes

The lament, "Sgt MacKenzie", is written and sung by Joe Kilna Mackenzie, son of Maria McCabe and the late Alex McCabe of Provost Christie Drive, Rothes.

Joe wrote the song in memory of his Grandfather, a Moray man from Bishopmill, who along with hundreds of other Seaforth Highlanders from the Elgin/Rothes area went to fight in the great war.

Sgt Charles Stuart MacKenzie was bayoneted to death at, the age of 35, while defending one of his badly injured colleagues in the hand to hand fighting of the trenches.

Film director Randall Wallace, who also won an Oscar for his screenplay of Braveheart, received a CD of the album and was haunted by the emotion and spirit of reverence captured in "Sgt MacKenzie. He arranged for Joe and band mate Donnie MacNeil, who played the pipes, to re-record 'Sgt MacKenzie' with the backing of an 80 piece orchestra and the WestPoint Military Choir at the famous Abbey Road Studios in London. The lament has been introduced into the film ["We Were Soldiers Once" starring Mel Gibson ~ sig94] during key scenes with Joe singing on his own and on the last track of the film with the orchestra and choir.

The above is from the Sgt. MacKenzie website - this is the most haunting dirge I have ever heard. It speaks to the sacrifice and the love for each other born in the heart of the common soldier, for Sgt. Charles Stuart MacKenzie did not die fighting for God and Country. He died defending his friend.

John 15:13: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

This lament has brought me to tears on more than one occasion. That's why I put it at the top of this post.

I Agree, Home Depot Stinks

From MSNBC:

ATLANTA - Home Depot Chief Executive Frank Blake was grilled Thursday by investors, who also shop in his company’s stores, on the retailer’s commitment to customer service.

Several shareholders spoke at the Atlanta-based company’s annual meeting about poor experiences in Home Depot stores. They said some employees don’t seem well-trained in the store’s products, and they also criticized the performance of people who do home installations for the company.

We bought carpeting and new doors from Home Depot. I will never give them any business again where I need something installed. It took those incompetent idiots three years of fumbling with my carpet ($3,500 worth, they did almost the whole downstairs) before I finally got disgusted enough to give up. I also had to fix the install on the two new screen doors (a $500 purchase).

In order to maximize their profits, they award the installation contracts to the lowest bidders. These low bidders can only make $$$ if they rush like crazy from one job to another. Or the manager hires his friends and relatives who don't know one end of a hammer from the other.

You get what you pay for.

Just What They Need

Hundreds of thousands of people in Myanmar are suffering wholesale displacement, hunger, thirst and disease.

So what kind of aid does the UN send?

Bangkok - The United Nations will send nearly a quarter of a million condoms into cyclone-hit Myanmar to help needy survivors with no access to contraceptives, a UN official says.

So far, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) said it had sent 72,800 condoms to survivors struggling to maintain their family planning after the storm hit in early May.

A total of 218,400 condoms would be delivered, UNFPA aid advisor Chaiyos Kunanusont said.

"We don't want regular use of contraception disrupted. An emergency usually damages the health system, so people don't have access to condoms and contraceptives," said Chaiyos.

Are we surprised that these lunkheads in the UN equate access to condoms on the same level as access to food, water and shelter?

Idiots.

I Wish I Said That

I was watching Glenn Beck tonight as he covered a particularly vicious home invasion. Two teens tortured another teen for six or seven hours in her home. The two teens are being tried as adults.

Glenn interviewed the victim's dad and the county sheriff where the two teens are lodged on $1 million bail.

The victim's dad said he hopes that these teens spend a long time in prison. The sheriff said, "Their parole officers ain't been born yet." I wish I said that.

Gun Fearing Wussies Get Shot Down

From TownHall.com:

Appeals Court Shoots Down New York City Gun Law
The media have been telling us to watch the gun-control case now before the U.S. Supreme Court, where we await a decision about Americans' Second Amendment rights. But the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals just handed down an equally important gun decision that has additional implications against judicial supremacy.

The court, which convenes in New York City, shot down the longtime liberal dream of achieving gun control by suing gun manufacturers for crimes committed by firearms. In a remarkable decision, this federal appellate court dismissed City of New York v. Beretta U.S.A. Corp. and protected gun corporations against frivolous lawsuits in state and federal courts.

The lawsuit was brought by the City of New York in order to seek control over gun suppliers. At stake was not merely money but also whether liberals would obtain from judicial activists the gun control that the liberals could not get from legislatures.

Say what you will, liberals won't stop. They will drive past a gunshop or open up the Sunday paper and see the flyers from Bass Pro Shop and get the shakes. They will write letters to their congressmen, send faxes and emails to whomever demanding that evil guns (much like evil oil) be taken away from citizens whose only crime is to rely upon their own devices for protection. And they will refuse to defend themselves, but rather pay tribute to Big Government in the vain hope that they will be safe.

They just don't realize that 90% of cop training is not about crime prevention; it's about crime documentation. After. The. Fact.

The Isle of Dr. Moreau

From the Times Online:

British scientists will be allowed to research devastating diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s using human-animal embryos, after the House of Commons tonight rejected a ban.

An amendment to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill that would have outlawed the creation of “human admixed mbryos” for medical research was defeated in a free vote by a majority of 160, preserving what Gordon Brown regards as a central element of the legislation.

The measure frees British scientists to mix animal and human DNA

by moving a human nucleus into an empty animal egg. These are genetically 99.9 per cent human. As well as true hybrids, it also allows chimeras that combine human and animal cells and transgenic human embryos that include a little animal DNA.

CHIMERA

1. (often initial capital letter) a mythological, fire-breathing monster,
commonly represented with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail.
2. any similarly grotesque monster having disparate parts, esp. as depicted
in decorative art.
3. a horrible or unreal creature of the imagination; a
vain or idle fancy: He is far different from the chimera your fears have made of
him.
4. Genetics. an organism composed of two or more genetically distinct
tissues, as an organism that is partly male and partly female, or an
artificially produced individual having tissues of several species.

Society used to have prohibitions against violating the so called "laws of nature." These boundaries are fast disappearing. Once researchers start to mingle interspecies DNA it will only be a matter of time before the freak shows begin. I say this because of two thoughts I have. One is the old adage “What one generation tolerates, the next generation will embrace." The other is "love of money is the root of much evil."

Make no bones about this. Follow the money. People are looking for ways to climb into the public trough and root around to their hearts content. This is true for the global warming crowd and the geneticists have taken a page from the same play book.

The recipe is simple: 1) Offer completely unsubstaniated benefits that will cure disease, disfigurement and disabilities (or scare people to death with half baked theories); 2) Enlist the aid of pandering politicians and before you know it, another entitlement is born.

The researchers (and the corporations sponsoring them) will dig out pitiful creatures who will demand that whatever ails them be remedied with public funding of genetic experimentation. The sniveling cowards who did not fight the original legislation legitimizing this obscene exercise will climb on the band wagon. The few who resist the movement will be branded as reactionary obstructionists/neanderthals and marginalized in the media.

I'm not really sure where it will go, but I believe that the abortion agenda will be tied to this as well as euthanasia. Already they are talking about growing children (or a blasphemous parody thereof) to be used for their organs.

Another free vote saw MPs backed the use of embryo-screeing to select “saviour siblings” suitable to donate umbilical cord blood to sick children, by a majority of 179.

Once the researchers create an appetite for this sort of ghoulish harvest that doesn't pan out from genetic research, they will go after aborted fetuses or infants whose "quality of life" is not acceptable to the parents. Blood money.

Do You Smell that?

The Aerie has a great post "Why John McCain Is An Ignoramus" and I am tempted to steal the entire thing. But here's a sampler.

John McCain is out courting the left by claiming that our solution to global warming is "Cap and Trade". This is folly. There are only 3 things you need to know about the anthropogenic global warming (AGW) hoax:

1. C02 (which plants love BTW) increases in the atmosphere FOLLOW global warming, not the other way around. If you look closely at the graph in "An Inconvenient Truth" you can see this. However, in this particular section of the film, Al Gore glosses over this fact and claims the opposite. The man is a greedy liar and should be kicked off the board of Apple.

2. If it were possible for man to warm the planet, IT WOULD BE A GOOD THING. When the planet was warmer in the past than it is now, civilization thrived. Cooling is MUCH more dangerous than warming and, ironically, global cooling will require much more energy to be expended to keep us and our crops warm.

3. We are officially now in our tenth year of global cooling and many scientists without an AGW grant are confirming that this is just the beginning. Expect MUCH cooler years ahead.

Drop on over to the Aerie to finish the read. I really liked Dan's closing paragraph:

But the reason that oil is eeevil is that it allows people to drive and we can't have that, nosiree. If people can drive where they want to then how can the we possibly control their lives? After all, the proletariate need to live in tall government provided housing near the center of crime ridden cities and ideally, should move from place to place using a urine encrusted public transportation system of some kind.

Urine encrusted transportation is endorsed by PETA. No animals are harmed in the production of urine.



"You smell that? Do you smell that? Urine, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of urine in the morning. It smells like ...... piss"

How Many?

I'm guessing here that Columbia and Harvard do not have geography departments.

What really frosts me is if this knucklehead reads that some terrorist blew up a wedding reception in Peoria, would he even know where it is? And the dims mocked Dan Quail over "potato."

"Potatogate" went beyond late-night punchlines. It was the perfect opportunity for politicians to laugh and point. Bill Clinton and Al Gore turned that hay into political gold, and even flew Figueroa in to the Democratic National Convention to deliver the Pledge of Allegiance.

He became known as The Potato Kid throughout the United States. In his grandparents' home country of Puerto Rico, he was known as "El rey de la papa" (The Potato King). He marched in Trenton's Puerto Rican Day Parade.

What is William Figueroa doing these days? In August of 2004, New York Times reporter Mark Fass caught up with him to ask a few questions. It turns out that the boy who would be king was a high-school dropout with a child of his own by the age of 16. By 24, he'd had 3 kids and was working at Wal-Mart."

Ya think the media will paint Obama with the same brush?

Don't Spit In Texas

Another man who assaulted a cop gets a tought prison sentence, 35 years, in Texas.

DALLAS (AP) -- An HIV-positive man convicted of spitting into the eye and mouth of a Dallas police officer has been sentenced to 35 years in prison.

Because a jury found that Willie Campbell used his saliva as a deadly weapon, the 42-year-old will have to serve half his sentence before becoming eligible for parole.

He was sentenced Wednesday. Campbell was being arrested in May 2006 for public intoxication when he began resisting and kicking inside the patrol car, Dallas police office Dan Waller testified.

Campbell was convicted of harassment of a public servant.

This is the operative section of the Texas Penal Code that booted this mope through the goal posts.

§ 22.11. HARASSMENT BY PERSONS IN CERTAIN CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES; HARASSMENT OF PUBLIC SERVANT.

(a) A person commits an offense if, with the intent to assault, harass, or alarm, the person: (1) while imprisoned or confined in a correctional or detention facility, causes another person to contact the blood, seminal fluid, vaginal fluid, saliva, urine, or feces of the actor, any other person, or an animal; or (2) causes another person the actor knows to be a public servant to contact the blood, seminal fluid, vaginal fluid, saliva, urine, or feces of the actor, any other person, or an animal while the public servant is lawfully discharging an official duty or in retaliation or on account of an exercise of the public servant's official power or performance of an official duty.

(b) An offense under this section is a felony of the third degree.

(c) If conduct constituting an offense under this section also constitutes an offense under another section of this code, the actor may be prosecuted under either section.

(d) In this section, "correctional or detention facility" means: (1) a secure correctional facility; or (2) a "secure correctional facility" or a "secure detention facility" as defined by Section 51.02, Family Code, operated by or under contract with a juvenile board or the Texas Youth Commission or any other facility operated by or under contract with that commission.

(e) For purposes of Subsection (a)(2), the actor is presumed to have known the person was a public servant if the person was wearing a distinctive uniform or badge indicating the person's employment as a public servant.

I've seen guys in New York get sentenced to less time for killing a cop. A felony in the third degree is not the highest offense in Texas.

Texas Criminal Penalties:
A Class C misdemeanor is punishable by a fine not to exceed $500.
A Class B misdemeanor is punishable by a fine not to exceed $2000; confinement in jail for a term not to exceed 180 days; or both fine and confinement.
A Class A misdemeanor is punishable by a fine not to exceed $4000; confinement in jail for a term not to exceed one year; or both fine and confinement.

A state jail felony is punishable by confinement in a state jail for any term of not more than 2 years or less than 180 days and by a fine not to exceed $10,000.

A 3rd degree felony is punishable by imprisonment for any term of not more than 10 years or less than 2 years and a fine not to exceed $10,000.
A 2nd degree felony is punishable by imprisonment for any term of not more than 20 years of less than 2 years and a fine not to exceed $10,000.
A 1st degree felony is punishable by imprisonment for life or for any term of not more than 99 years or less than 5 years and a fine not to exceed $10,000.

Build The Fence

From Law Enforcement News:

Illegal Immigrant Guilty in Houston Officer's Death

A jury found an illegal immigrant guilty of killing Houston Police Officer Rodney Johnson, KPRC Local 2 reported Thursday.

Juan Leonardo Quintero, 33, was found guilty of capital murder. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Prosecutors will seek the death penalty.

In closing arguments, prosecutor John Jordan pointed at Quintero and told jurors, "You all will get to decide by your verdict what I told you two weeks ago -- he ain't insane, he's just a cold-blooded killer."

Jordan said that Quintero shot and killed Johnson on Sept. 21, 2006, after a traffic stop in southeast Houston because he was afraid of being arrested and could have faced deportation to his native Mexico.

During the trial, the defense told jurors that Quintero suffered from a mental defect that was caused by a childhood fall.

Houston Police Officer Rodney Johnson and dirtbag murderer.

The Other White Meat

Oh I dunno, just thought I'd throw this WSJ article out there.

SEOUL, South Korea -- As the hot summer rolls around, many South Koreans will dine on a local dish that's often named "sweet meat" or "healthy soup."

The dish is dog -- and it supposedly gives an energizing boost without a filled-up feeling. Some say it enhances stamina and sexual prowess. But dog meat has recently been linked to a spate of salmonella and staph infections, drawing the attention of authorities -- and bringing a long-simmering cultural dispute to a boil.

Or it makes you want to piss on your neighbor's shrubs.

Though dog meat is officially banned in Seoul, enforcement is lax. It is served by an unsupervised industry of small farmers, butchers and mom-and-pop restaurants. In Seoul alone, some 530 restaurants have dog on the menu, mostly spicy dog-meat stew laced with ginger and garlic for about $10 a bowl, about twice as much as soups made with seafood or beef.

Now that puts a different angle on Shepard Pie. I guess everything on the menu comes in a doggie bag. I wouldn't mind trying Leg O'Lassie, or the Rin Tin Tin platter - broiled Boxer briquettes, poached Pinscher and refried Retriever. Maybe the ever popular Shih Tzu on a Stick, a relative of the corn dog on a leash...

In March, Seoul's food-safety office tied some salmonella cases to dog meat. Concerned, officials proposed designating dogs as "livestock," which would subject the meat to rules on sanitation. While there's no timetable for a final decision, the agency is now making a formal survey of handling methods at restaurants known to serve dog.

Getting your entre to "sit," "speak," and "roll over" can be an excellent way to work up a healthy appetite. You can even take your dinner for a healthy walk before hand. Those beautiful, adoring eyes looking at you lovingly from between your hands will go nicely with cocktail sauce.

[,,,]Outside the capital, there are no restrictions on dog meat. A large outdoor market in the suburb of Moran, 20 miles south of central Seoul, is one of the centers of the trade in South Korea. About a dozen butchers line a row at the market, with a shop that sells herbs and spices for the stew at the end. The smell of butane, used to fuel burners to remove fur from dog carcasses, hangs over the market. Some butchers also sell goat, goose and chicken.

Today, most dog meat comes from a breed simply known as "yellow dog" that looks similar to an indigenous hunting breed called Jindo. Most are raised on farms with dozens of other dogs, fed scrap from restaurants and sold for meat at between 12 and 18 months of age.

Yellow dog, the Angus of the breed.

More English Justice

John at Powerline posted an article regarding the activities of a British felon that has me absolutely dumbfounded. Innocent people are not permitted to know when a convicted sex offender is dropped in their midst.

Not that this felon is doing anything out of the ordinary for a convicted murderer; he is killing and raping right on schedule. He has left a trail of pain and ruined lives in his wake for years and no one is surprised because English law has not the slightest intent of protecting innocent citizens. From the UK Telegraph:

Michael Clark, 40, was on the Sex Offenders Register and subject to official checks. But he was able to move into a city of his choosing where neighbours did not know his past.

The council considered him too dangerous to live there, but had to house him after being warned of legal action for breaching his human rights as a homeless person.

Clark had just been released from a three-year jail term for sexually assaulting a prostitute and had been given a seven-year sentence for raping a woman in her own home.

Even in liberal NY State there laws that control where and when these people can be released from prison. My preference of course, is a simple surgical procedure that would eliminate the propensity for re-offending by permanently removing the offensive member. In Mr. Clark's case, this same procedure should have been applied just below his chin. What follows is terrible.

[...]Robert and Matgorzarta Zommer came to Britain from Poland with their daughter Zuzanna, 14, and nine-year-old son Mikotej.

Clark, a jobless solvent abuser, struck as the couple walked their son to his first day at school two months after arriving in the country.

He is thought to have let himself into the house where he sexually assaulted Zuzanna before stabbing her in the stomach, fracturing her skull by stamping on her head and slitting her throat.

Afterwards he drew his benefits from a Post Office and went to Blackpool.

This heartless beast rapes, stomps and carves up a teenager, toddles down to to pick up his welfare check and then off on a lark.

Clark also had convictions for assaulting a woman friend and assaulting two police officers, biting a testicle off one of them.

This nutsack munching monster finally pissed off enough people, so the Brits locked him up for 35 years. Now everyone involved in the decisions on where to house this homicidal maniac has shifted into heavy duty CYA mode.

When he was released from jail for attacking the prostitute it was considered too dangerous for him to return to Scunthorpe, Lincs.

He moved to Leeds, where the city council rejected his request to house him.

Les Carter, Leeds city council's head of neighbourhood and housing, said the homeless charity Shelter warned of possible judicial review because the decision infringed his human rights.

The finger pointing circle jerk goes into high gear.

Det. Supt Bill Shackleton, who led the police inquiry, said: "Clark was on the Sex Offenders Register and regular checks were carried out on him.

"He was being managed in the community."

A spokesman for West Yorkshire Probation Service said: "We had no statutory supervision of Clark. He was not on licence or any other kind of sentence that involved probation."

And while the bureaucrats are dodging blame, the homeless-coddling Shelter people join in the Not Me chorus.

A Shelter spokesman said: "This is a tragic case and we send our sincerest sympathies to the family.

"We did not ask or threaten a judicial review. [...] Questions need to be asked as to why this young girl and her family were housed next to a known sex offender."

The Shelter advocacy group typically places the blame on the victim's family. The monster is also a victim so of course there is no question why he was allowed to move where ever he wanted. No, the real question is why English law has abandoned the people it is supposed to protect.

Settling An Age-Old Question

The answer is "Yes."

A big H/T to my SIL.

The Bear Shows Its Teeth

Thursday morning we had a reverse E911 call up warning Town of Geddes residents that a bear was spotted rummaging around a residential section. The section was right across the Rt 695 arterial from my backyard.

The bear was treed later that day and tranquilized so it could be transported out of the area. On Friday the three year old, 200 pound bear was killed by the DEC because this is not the first time it has been removed from a residential area. Last fall the same animal was breaking into garages in the Waterloo area and eating bird seed stored in garbage cans.

At that point, the bear went to Class 1 - the highest level of threat, Wasilco said. He was a bear with no fear of humans and no future: If authorities ever caught up with him, he was going to be killed.

But this bear didn't show its teeth. It is another Bear that alsomade the news. On Friday, May 9th, Russian conducted it's first military parade through Moscow since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The parade followed Thursday's explusion of two US military attaches.

The old May Day parades and WWII celebrations were to showcase Russian military might to the West. The Russkies would goose step by the thousands past the walls of the Kremlin followed by tanks, armored personnel carriers, mobile missile launchers, anti-aircraft vehicles and whatever else they could paste caterpillar treads and a cannon on (such as the dreaded Stolichnaya Vodka Delivery Assault Vehicle). Russian leaders would review the farce from on top of Lenin's Tomb.


Because it was a charade. Many of these weapons were assigned to units whose primary duty was to train to march in these parades. Some *ahhh* weapons are more deadly than others. You can view the parade in its entirety - 65 minutes - if you want, but listen to how the announcers keep pounding your ears with the notion that this is an exhibit for the Russian people only for historical celebration and what a shame that there aren't many WWII vets still alive, especially after Stalin killed millions of them. Oh, and the Russkies might want to sell a few of these T-90's if they can.

Hilary's Last Stand: In Za Bunker

NSFW due to profane text. But it is a scream!

Smart Gal

It is very disturbing to have people break into your house and steal your stuff . It's like being violated. I remember how upset I was when some burglar made off with what little I had as a student. As a cop, I also remember the immense satisfaction I got whenever I apprehended one of these idiots right in the act.

Take my word for it, screaming "Police! Don't Move Or I'll Shoot!" at the top of your lungs with a revolver in your hands while some mook craps his pants can be a real catharsis. Yup, dumb crooks can make your day. But smart victims can make your day too. Like this gal.

A tech-savvy White Plains woman whose apartment was burglarized solved the crime herself after she was able to log on to her stolen laptop, photograph one of the suspects with it and get photos of another, police said.

Apparently the thieving duo who trashed her apartment didn't understand the full capabilities of the equipment they looted. Too bad.

When one of the mooks turned the laptop on, the computer must have started an instant message service that showed the victim's name as on line on her friend's contact list.

[...] the victim signed onto another computer and used the "Back to My Mac" program to determine that her stolen MacIntosh laptop indeed was signed onto the Web and that someone was using it to shop online. She then activated the stolen computer's camera, allowing her to "see" what was in front of the laptop.

At first, police said, she saw only an empty chair. But a short time later, they said, she was able to photograph a man, Shahikian, sitting in front of her stolen laptop. The victim then was able to find photos of Frias using the computer after it had been stolen, police said.

Fischer said the victim did not know either man but showed the photos to one of her roommates, who recognized them as having attended a get-together at the apartment a few weeks before the burglary.

Police said Shahikian and Frias apparently are friends of a friend of the victims.

These are mugshots of the two burglars. Edmon Shahikian is Stooge #1 on the left, Ian Frias is Stooge #2.

The Two Stooges are currently enjoying the lavish accommodations, fine cuisine and lively social life of the Westchester County Jail.

Someone Give This Drooler A Clue Bib

Jimmy Carter bought a carton of Depends and a one way ticket aboard the USS Dementia today when he wrote this piece of crap for the UK Guardian:

The world is witnessing a terrible human rights crime in Gaza, where a million and a half human beings are being imprisoned with almost no access to the outside world. An entire population is being brutally punished.

I'm not going to post anymore of his insanity because he completely ignores the murder and mayhem committed against Israel by these maniacs. And Israel is not alone.

Egypt doesn't want these idiots running around their country and crapping on the carpet so much so that they also built a wall to keep them out. The Palestinians bulldozed a hole in it in January 2006 and then blew up a whole section of it two years later.

The Egyptians keep repairing it though. Seems like the old adage, "Good Fences Make Good Neighbors," applies to every one but the Palestinians.

Control Freak

The defense attorney for Josef Fritzl, the Austrian fiend, the "Inseminator,"who imprisoned his daughter for over twenty years and fathered seven children, states that his client is a nut case and should not be put in jail.

"In my personal opinion, Josef Fritzl is mentally ill and therefore of diminished responsibility. I believe that my client does not belong in prison but in a secure psychiatric unit," lawyer Rudolf Mayer was quoted as saying by Bild am Sonntag today.

Herr Fritzl is not insane, he is evil. There's a big difference. Fritzl somehow managed to conceal from his wife, tenants, relatives, friends and neighbors the horrific conditions that he imposed on four people locked in his basement for decades. This beggers the imagination.

He fed them, carted out their dead, took care of their waste products, clothed them - for 24 years:

Elisabeth—now 42—was 18 when Fritzl locked her away leaving others to believe she had run away to join a sect. Over the next 24 years he fathered Kersten, 19, Stefan, 18, Lisa, 16, Monika, 15, Alexander, 12 (whose twin died soon after birth) and Felix, five.

Elisabeth was originally imprisoned in one room but over a decade Fritzl secretly added extra rooms for his second family. None had windows or sunlight and all had remote controlled locked steel doors.

This is not some out of control lunatic. This is a very much in control monster.

Just think of all the work, all the planning this took. He stole electricity and food from his tenants. No one had a clue? His wife never journeyed into her basement? Three of Elisabeth's children lived upstairs with the rest of the family based on a whimsical excuse that she left them on the doorstep?

I don't believe it, not for a second, not in the same house, not for for two and a half decades

Phony Looking CG

I am so sick of looking at cheap, phony computer graphics in made -for-TV movies. I would rather see claymation or guys running around in monster suits tripping over HO train sets.

Police Etiquette 101

While browsing through Vince Aut Morire, I saw this little toothsome tidbit. Allegedly he bit a Nebraska State Trooper last February and managed to escape. He was apprehended on April 17th and tried to escape again.

Wrong.

He looks like a recent graduate of the nationally accredited Police Etiquette 101 course offered for free by most law enforcement agencies throughout the country. It is a pass/fail course and class participants will be tested.

It is strongly recommended that you pass the first time.

50 Years

This weekend our church celebrated its 50th anniversity. There are less than a handful of the original, or "charter", members left alive now. In 1958, five families in the Camillus area got together and mortgaged their homes to start this work. Within 17 days they had bought a parcel of land with an old brick farm house on it. This was the start of W. Genesee Hills Baptist Church. The current facility was built in the mid-sixties and the farmhouse is no longer used. My wife and I have been attending services here since 1983. Our first year there was the church's 25th anniversary.

The Post Standard ran a short article for this occasion.

We had a very nice dinner last night at the Camillus Elks Club; about 200 people attended. There were a number of people who traveled from out of state to be there. After services this morning we held another reception and I had another opportunity to talk to more people that I haven't seen in years. It really was a wonderful time. Some people have been gone for so long that I forgot how much I missed them. Until this weekend...

Running Blow

Our Nation is facing more challenges in protecting our shores. The use of mini submarines by the drug cartels is increasing. From Fox News:

In the last 6 months the U.S. Coast Guard along with the U.S. Navy have found 42 submersibles headed north towards the United States and off the coast of Central America. That is double the number found in the previous 5 years combined. These subs can carry as much as 10 tons of drugs or even weapons and some of the latest models can move 15 knots. This is obviously troubling and makes our war on the cartels that much more difficult. We are currently at Coast Guard Island in Alameda California, where the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Sherman is located. The ship has recently returned from operations off of Central America, where finding these subs is proving difficult. They are primitive but effective and built similar to the subs used in the civil war. Usually about 6 inches or so sticks above the water, which is almost impossible to spot. During the day the subs sit, preserving their cover for movement at night.

StrategyPage has more "dope" on these semi-submersibles that run with maybe a foot or less showing above the surface. This makes these craft very hard to detect.

The subs, made of fiberglass, are constructed by the drug gangs, using technicians and materials brought in for the purpose. This costs several hundred thousand dollars per boat. Which is not so bad when you consider that each voyage moves a cargo worth $100 million or more. The craft are from 50-80 feet in length, have a crew of three or four, and carry 3-10 tons of cocaine up the coast to Central America, or farther north.

These are not submarines in the true sense of the word, but "semi-submersibles". The fiberglass boats, powered by a diesel engine, have a small "conning tower" above the water, providing the crew, and engine, with fresh air, and permitting the crew to navigate the boat. A boat of this type is the only practical kind of "submarine" for drug smuggling. A real submarine would be much more difficult to build, although you can buy commercial subs for a million dollars or so. These, however, can carry only a few hundred pounds of cargo, and not for long distances.

It appears that many of these boats are reaching their destinations.

Army Strong

My daughter went and did it. She enlisted in the Army this afternoon. She is now in the DEP (Delayed Entry Program) and must report in on 22 JUL 08. She is scheduled to attend OCS at Ft. Bennington in October.

I was expecting it and I thought I would be fine, but I'm kinda numb at the prospect. If she gets the MOS (Mil Intel) she wants she'll probably end up in the sand box within a year talking to murderous idiots in their heathen tongue. She has been home from Eygpt less than a year and we had hoped she would be with us longer.

There was some confusion about her enlistment bonus (there ain't gonna be one) and that pissed me off, producing a terse call to one of the recruiters. He explained in some detail what happened and I accused him of a "bait and switch." I am still a little jigged over this so I am not going to get into it until I settle down a bit. This bonus scenario changed at the very last moment before she was asked to sign and I told her afterwards that she should have told them to cram it until more information was forthcoming. More than one former Army person (officer and enlisted)warned me not to trust the recruiters. But my daughter is fine with it. She wanted in, bonus or no.

So be it.